Except we are crippled by the marketeers and finance folks to the point that what comes out is crap. The Fiero story is a great illustration.
There is a philosphy difference in play. In the USA, the primary driver is often cost to produce. In Germany and Japan how long something lasts is often more important than what it costs. It's a question of balance point.
Right now, on the product I work on we had changed from German made part to a US made part for cost reasons. Well, the US made part is certainly cheaper but it's costing us much more in reliability issues. We are switching back to the German design.
In consumer products, the US buyer is way too concerned with having the newest thing and the lowest cost. Far too many people use, throw away, and buy another. It leads to products that have a short life expectency.
There are also different aspects of design that are forced by laws etc.
Another thing is that US vehicles often have poorer performance in handling, braking, etc because the majority of people in this country don't know enough about cars or don't care. It's true of other products as well. The market demands overseas are much higher. In fact, companies like Ford and GM make better products in other countries to meet the local buyers' demands. They simply give us the crap because people here will buy it.
